Dear Families,
We are so excited to welcome you back to school and look forward to getting to know you in our classroom. We work really hard to get to know all the students and understand their strengths and help to gently push them in their areas of weakness. Everyone has something that we can be doing better! We try to use ourselves as a model for this growth and allow the students to understand that learning is about making mistakes, fixing them and growing from them. We are not expected to be perfect and need to allow our children little moments of failure to help them understand that picking yourself up and moving on is a really healthy approach to learning and life.
The transition from second to third grade is a large one. Your child will be tired! It will take a few weeks to get adjusted to the new routine. Please be understanding and supportive as they go through the transition and let us know how we can support you.
We would particularly like to keep a strong home/school connection in regards to your child’s independent reading habits. Research shows that fluency and comprehension increase through independent reading practice, using text that is at a child’s comfortable reading level. Deeper reading comprehension occurs when students make connections between themselves, the text, and the outside world. Please spend time listening to your child read, and discussing their selections and the content of the books. Third graders are expected to read at least 80 minutes per week, and fourth graders, 120 minutes. Although students often have favorite topics or series, we would also like to encourage them to select different genres to expose them to different types of information and styles of writing.
Students have a Home/School Folder that should travel back and forth to school every day. Inside will be a Weekly Assignment Sheet (this week’s is teal, but the color will vary) on which students will record their homework. This is also where they will record the number of minutes that they read each week, along with the titles of the books. This folder will also hold notes, homework papers, and any other important information. Students do have homework tonight, which is explained on a separate piece of paper, stapled to their Weekly Assignment Sheet, and due tomorrow.
There is a lot of other information coming home with your child today, including a colored folder from the office. Please review this information with your child, and return the necessary forms and lunch money as soon as possible. We are also including a weekly schedule for our classrooms as well as an outline of the major topics and themes for the year. There may be slight changes and deviations throughout the year, but if there are any significant changes, we will let you know. If there are topics that you are particularly interested in, or relate to a special talent of yours, we would love to have you share that with us. Parents are always welcome in the classroom. We are also sending home an explanation of our homework policy (on bright pink paper) that should be kept for reference throughout the year. All of this information is also posted on our 3rd & 4th grade webpage, linked to the Fayston School Website. We have recently converted our class webpage to the new format of our school page. We hope to fill it with current pictures and new student work as soon as possible.
Please feel free to contact us with any comments or questions throughout the year. E-mail is often the fastest way to communicate for quick questions and to gather information. For more detailed conversations about your child or a concern please plan on talking by phone or setting up a conference during school hours. We are happy to talk to you at any point during the day when we are free or up until 4:00 in the afternoon. ([email protected], [email protected], Ext. 200 for Carla Lewis, Ext. 110 for Erin Koch) This information is on the Fayston School Website. In addition to posting information and letters on our website, we will also send an email to the address that you have provided the school. If you have an additional email address that you would like us to use, please send it in. With your support and guidance, we know we will have a great year.
Sincerely,
Erin and Carla